


Love will find a way

by Shiniyi



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-11
Updated: 2019-07-21
Packaged: 2020-06-26 15:27:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 8,339
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19771102
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shiniyi/pseuds/Shiniyi
Summary: "Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that.Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that."- Martin Luther King Jr.Marcs and Nathaniels story hadn't a good start, but had a plottwist when Marc was deakumatized. But what if there is more than partnership? More than friendship?Will their relationship survive this? And what troubles will come across their way if it does? Will they find their way?





	1. Every story has a beginning

Since the day Akumas appeared in Paris, Marc always questioned himself what it would feel like to get akumatized. Of course, he knew that it mustn’t be a good feeling and now he knew for sure. Now, where he became a victim of Hawkmoth himself, he knew that it felt kind of… strange.

The last thing he remembered, before falling down the eiffel tower, was that he kneeled down before the fountain in the park, looking deeply hurt on the ripped parts of his notebook. Well, he wasn’t hurt because of the notebook itself, he was more hurt because of the person who did it, because it was a person, he admired for a long time now.

This person was Nathaniel, who now accompanied him on his way home. After he realized, he completely misinterpreted the whole situation, he wanted to make amends somehow and thought it would be a good start to tell Marc everything that happened.

“Well and this was already everything”, he ended his explanation, which let the writer turn red out of shame. He couldn’t believe he did all that and suddenly had the feeling to be starred at from every corner. Marc pulled his hood over, he didn’t know why, but somehow it always comforted him when he was anxious.

“There’s no need to hide”, Nathaniel said in a calm voice and carefully grabbed for his hood to pull it back again, “I’m sure almost half of Paris became a victim by Hawkmoth by now, so most of the people know that you have no control of yourself when this is the case and nobody will judge you.”

“A-Are you sure a-about that?”, Marc mumbled in his usually shy self and only dared to look at the artist from the corner of his eyes. “Of course I am”, Nathaniel guarantied, before directing his attention on the way before him again.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Meanwhile they walked for almost ten minutes and were silent on the main part of the way. Marc imagined already many reasons why this could be. Was he mad at him after all? But why is he accompanying him on his way home then? Just out of bad conscience?

Marc didn’t want this, he wanted to have everything clear between them, when they were going to work on the comic.

Or didn’t Nathaniel want this anymore?

These questions tortured Marc on the inside. He really had to talk to Nathaniel, or this thoughts would be in his mind for days.

He swallowed, to get rid of this lump in his throat, build a fist and took a deep breath to gain a bit of courage.

“Hey, Marc”, Nathaniel suddenly spoke up. Marc startled a bit and had to cough because of his now dry throat. “Y-Yes?”, he asked, after he calmed down again and felt a feeling of embarrassment coming up, giving his cheeks a slight shade of red.  
“I… want to apologies”, Nathaniel said, to Marcs surprise. His reasons for Nathaniels silence were now erased out of his head. “It was so idiotic and unfair that I ripped your notebook”, he said, “Especially I, as a fellow artist, should know what it feels like to see something you worked so hard on treated without respect. I want to make amends for this, please tell me what I should do for that and I do it.”

“That’s… very nice of you”, Marc told him, “B-But you don’t have to make amends, I-I’m really not m-mad at you.” Nathaniel shook his head, it seemed like he didn’t want to accept this like that. “At least let me buy you a new notebook”, he demanded, but Marc did it just like Nathaniel and shook his head. “Y-You don’t have to”, Marc said, “I-I’m sure I can g-glue the ripped parts together again.”

To check his statement, Marc pulled out his notebook from the inside of his Hoodie. He opened it, just to get surprised that there weren’t any ripped parts anymore. “Nathaniel, look!”, he drew the artist attention to him and the notebook. Nathaniel was just as surprised as Marc.

“Wow”, he just said, “Ladybug is really amazing.” A light shade of pink appeared on his cheeks, which left a strange feeling inside of Marc. It felt like someone would squeeze his heart, but what could this be?

“T-There I life”, Marc said and pointed on one of the many apartment buildings in the street they currently were. This house seemed a bit older than the others, but still inviting.

Both of them were crossing the street to reach it, but just in this moment when Marc wanted to pull out his keys, the door opened and a young woman, maybe only a few years older than them, ran out, hugged Marc and held him tight.

“Marc, for gods sake, please don’t scare me like this again”, she began to talk, “When I saw the news today and realized you were Hawkmoths victim, I almost died because of a heart attack.”

The woman held him even tighter, Nathaniel was worried if Marc was even able to breath like that.

“I swear to you, when I find out who was responsible for that, I will kick him in a very displeasing part of his body and that so hard, that even his grandkids will still feel it!”, she promised enraged.

Only after telling this, she noticed Nathaniels presence, who really would like to run away out of fear, but stood there like frozen and looked at the women with eyes just as big as plates.

After she saw him, her face suddenly became much calmer. She loosened her grip around Marc, who did his best to catch his breath again.

“You didn’t tell me you had a friend with you”, she said and held out a hand towards Nathaniel with a smile on her face “Hi, I’m Cecille Anciel, Marcs older sister and you are?”

“N-Nathaniel K-Kurtzberg”, the redhead answered and slowly took Cecilles Hand to shake it, extremely scared of what the writers sister said a few seconds ago. He never wished for a cup this badly like in this moment.

“You seem very shy, just like my brother, how adorable”, she noticed. “Uhm… Cecille…”, Marc tried to draw his sisters attention towards him.

“Not now, Marc, I’m talking to your friend”, she said to him and came back to Nathaniel. “Hey, now that you’re here, why don’t you stay for dinner? I’m currently making Crouque Monsieur and still could make some for you as well.”

“T-That’s very n-nice, b-but I can’t”, Nathaniel answered, “M-My mother… she… surely made dinner a-already and she d-doesn’t like to waste anything.”

“Sis…”, Marc tried to talk to her again, but she waved him aside. “That’s understandable”, she told him, “But you absolutely have to stay another time, ok?”

“Cecille!”, Marc suddenly became louder, which surprised her as well as Nathaniel. “What is it?”, she finally asked. Marc didn’t say another word, he just pointed upstairs.

The three looked up to the building, or more like to a certain window, where they could already see big clouds of smoke on the inside. Cecilles expression changed again, her skin now was pale like a corpse and the stared to the window in shock.

“Oh crap!”, she yelled and quickly ran back into the house. “It was nice meeting you, Nathaniel!”, was the last thing the boys heard from her, before the door fell back into the lock.

Marc sighed. He loved his sister, but sometimes she was so embarrassing for him. He turned around to face Nathaniel, who seemed to feel very displeased after what just happened.

“I-I’m so s-sorry”, Marc apologized for Cecille. Nathaniel was brought back to reality and shock his head very quick. “It’s okay”, he told him, “Beside the fact that she would like to kick me in a… very displeased part of my body…, she seems very nice.” Both boys let out an embarrassed laughter. “Y-You don’t h-have to be s-scared about this”, Marc said while scratching the back of his head, “S-She probably bluffed a-about that, s-she just sounded so b-believable because she is an a-actress.” Another silence followed Marcs little explanation. Which every second it went on, Marc got more and more nervous.

He cleared his throat. “W-Well”, he began to talk again, “I-I think I will l-look if my s-sister is still alive.” He turned around on his heels and was going to unlock the door, as Nathaniel stopped him.

“Wait!”, he called out for him. Marc startled a bit, but turned around to Nathaniel again. “Y-Yes?”, he asked, while a shade of red appeared on his cheeks. Nathaniel walked towards him, while pulling his phone out of his pocket.

“If… it doesn’t bother you, I would like to exchange phone numbers”, he told him, “You know… so we can keep in touch.”

The writer noticed that his heart was beating a bit faster, somehow he was very happy about the artists request. ‘Know calm down, Marc’, he thought, ‘He just want to exchange numbers, that’s nothing special.’

“Marc?”, Nathaniel called out for him again, after he hasn’t received any answer by the black haired boy. Marc snapped out of his thoughts. “Y-Yes”, he mumbled, “W-We can exchange n-numbers.”

After that, the author also pulled out his phone to safe the artists number.

“Okay”, Nathaniel said afterwards, “Then I will go home now, see you tomorrow.” They waved to each other and Marc turned towards the door again to get into the apartment building.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The young writer took a deep breath to get rid of his nervousness, while he climbed up the stairs to the fifth floor, where he and his sister were living. He hated this feeling of anxiety, which always came up when he was talking to people he doesn’t know this well. He wished he was more outgoing, but it was a wish, which will probably never come true.

Cecille was always trying to help him, but her help wasn’t really… helpful.

Marc reached his apartment. The door was open, his sister must left it open, because she was in a rush. He entered the apartment and saw that the whole corridor was already full of smoke. And, if this wasn't already enough, the smoke detector also sensed the smoke and began to go off, causing for Marc to startle once again.

“Marc, get a broom and take this thing out!”, Cecille yelled from the kitchen. He followed her plea and opened the storage room, which was directly next to the entrace door. He grabbed for the first broom that came along and hold it up to press the button on the smoke detector. In a matter of seconds, everything, besides Cecilles coughing, was quiet again.

Marc walked towards the kitchen to look for her. Cecille was standing in front of the stove and tried to wave away the smoke with a kitchen towel. “Please spell me here for a moment, so I can open the window”, she said while reaching the towel to Marc. He continued there where Cecille ended, while she opened the small kitchen window.

After almost three minutes, the smoke disappered and the siblings were able to see the whole damage. Cecille said she wanted to make Croque Monsieur, right? Because this looked like coal tar.

“I'm so sorry”, Cecille said disappointed from herself, but Marc shook his head. “It's okay, I wasn't hungry anyway”, he said, earning a skeptical look from his sister.

“Oh please, brother, you're already eating too little”, she said worried, wherefore Marc tilted his head in confusion. “What are you talking about? I'm eating more than enough”, he claimed. Cecille layed her hands in her hips. “Sweets aren't a decent meal, young man”, she bleated, just sounding like a an old lady scolding a youngster. She had a point. Marc always ate in small rations, but when it came to sweets, he could literally turn into a vacuum cleaner. Marc had to laugh about this thought.

“Ok, then I will eat a little bit for you”, he said while opening the refrigerator and pulled out a small bowl of fruit salad, he had left from this morning. He showed the bowl to his sister, who sighed defeated and gave a small smile to her brother, before taking the pan to the sink on the other side of the kitchen.

Marc sat down on the small kitchen table in the middle of the room and began to eat. “To be honest, I didn't know you would be home when I come back”, Marc confessed, “Wasn't the audition for this new play today... uhm... what was the title again?” “The reign of terror”, Cecille stated the title of the play, “The audition was delayed to another day, because of the protests, I already told you how political people from the theater can get.”

Marc nodded, he already noticed enough when he was talking to Pierre, a colleague and very good friend of Cecille. “Ok”, Marc commented, “But I have another question to you: What was that downstairs?”

“I was worried to death and glad when I saw you uninjured”, Cecille explained her reaction from a few Minutes ago and shrugged her shoulders. Marc sighed and blushed a bit when he thought back about it. “Yes, but couldn't you wait until I was upstairs?... To be honest, it was really embarrassing to me”, Marc defined his position.

“I'm sorry, I really didn't see someone was walking with you”, Cecille said, when she turned off the tap and sat down at the table in front of Marc, “But he seemed very friendly, are you attending the same classes?” “We don't”, Marc said, “I talked to him for the first time today, but he is a really great artist, I always looked at his drawings on our schools webside.”

“Well, I'm glad you found another friend besides Marinette”, Cecille stated, “Uhm, but don't understand this wrong, I like Marinette, I mean it's nice to see that your anxiety seems to become less.”

Marc nodded, but only because he didn't want to give his sister more worries. He didn't feel as if his anxiety would become any less, but Cecille didn't have to know. “Well, about that, I have other good news”, Marc told her, “We are working together now, we want to make a comic book, I will write the scripts and Nathaniel will illustrate it.”

Cecilles eyes almost began to shimmer when she heard this. “That's so great!”, she said happily. Marc nodded again, but worry was drawn on his face, what Cecille noticed. She gave Marc a questioning look.

“It's just...”, he began to explain, “I'm really nervous and also scared that he won't like my writings, or that I will get out of ideas one day, or that my personality will get on his nerves this much, that he didn't want to work with me anymore, or...”

His sister interrupted Marc by standing up and walking around the table towards him. She squatted to get at eye level with her brother and laid a hand on his shoulder to soothe him. “I can soothe you in the points you just told me”, she told him and held up one finger of her other hand. “First, I read many of your stories and liked every one of them, they had almost the same style as if a professional author had wrote them.” She raised a second finger. “Second, it is true that you suffered from writers block sometimes before, but that's normal for creative people, because they are always setting higher standards to themselves and in their work, it's a sign that your hobby is important to you and that you still have fun at it”, she continued. Finally, she raised a third finger. “And third, I really don't know anyone who ever said you would go on their nerves. Sure, you are very shy and scared about what other people might think of you, but that is just you and I'm sure Nathaniel already knew that, so this won't be a burden for your work.”

Even if his sister already told him things like this countless times, it always helped Marc to feel a bit better. He smiled at her and gave her a hug, Cecille returned it. “Thanks, Cecille”, he thanked her. “I'm always there for you, little brother, don't you forget”, she answered him, before she released herself from the hug.

Marc stood up and put the bowl, with some leftovers, back in the fridge. “I'm going to my room”, he let Cecille know, “Nathaniel and I will meet tomorrow after school and I really want to collect some ideas beforehand.” Cecille nodded. “Ok, but please don't stay up to long, you need to stay concentrated tomorrow and that won't work if you are to tired”, she begged him. Marc nodded and wished a good night to his sister, before disappearing in his room.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Marcs room was next to the entrance, over the way of the storage room. It was established very simple, his furniture consisted of a light wood, the walls were painted in a light orange and decorated with some posters of his favorite musicians or favorite movies.

Marc walked towards his desk, sat down on the wooden chair in front of it and laid town his notebook in front of him. He took out a pen from the cup in front of him and opened the notebook on the last page he had written on, to get into the story again.

He decided to listen to some music while writing. He knew that some writers are saying it would bother them, if they hadn't absolute silence while writing, but it was the opposite case with him.

He took his phone out of his pocket to turn on one of his favorite songs, when he noticed the small notification light on his phone was blinking. He unlocked the phone to see what it could be and saw that it was a message from Nathaniel. When he tapped on the notification to read it, his heart suddenly began to beat a little faster.

'Hey, is everything alright? Is your sister still alive?'

Marc had to chuckle a bit when he read this and tapped on the text field to reply to his message.

'Hi, everything is alright, thanks for asking. My sister is also still alive, but you can't say the same about the dinner :'D'

Marc was about to lay his phone next to his notebook, when he noticed Nathaniel already read his message and was about to reply.

'At least you're not hurt :'D'

A second message followed his reply.

'About tomorrow, we can still meet, but I can't stay too long. Tomorrow is friday and my mother forces me to go to synagogue with her and dad.'

Marc was a bit surprised about this message, he hadn't thought Nathaniel was a religious person. He was responding to him directly.

'That's ok. I'm currently writing down some ideas, maybe we could talk about them tomorrow?'

He hadn't wait too long for Nathaniels reply.

'Wow, you're very diligent :) I gladly would like to talk about it tomorrow!'

'I have to go, my mother called for me, see you tomorrow!'

Nathaniel went offline after this message and Marc laid his phone next to his notebook, but not before turning on the song “Old Time Rock & Roll” by Bob Seger. Nobody would assume it, but he liked rock music, especially the old songs. The few people who knew that often joked about how he was born in the wrong time.

“You know you have to do the performance, if you let this song play?!”, Cecille yelled from the corridor, which made Marc laugh. Even he knew this particular performance to this song, even if he never saw the movie it came from.

“Admit it, only because you want to dance to this, without making a fool of you alone!”, Marc yelled back amused.

“Touché, little brother, touché”, Cecille answered and apparently walked into another room, because Marc heard footsteps, which got away from his room.

Meanwhile the song ended and the next one began to play. It was “Hold my Hand” by Michael Jackson and Akon, one of the few songs on Marcs phone, which doesn't belong to the rock genre.

It was kind of strange, but for some reason it made Marc think back about today, only that he scratched everything bad. Just this morning, he was completely isolated from everyone, sat under the stairs between classes and had almost no friends. Then Marinette convinced him to go to the art room and he met many nice people. The person, he was the most happy to finally have met, was Nathaniel.

Now the two would even work together and even if he was still scared, he was exited about it. Let's see what tomorrow would bring.


	2. The first meeting

What did Cecille say about writers’ blocks? That they are a sign, that you still have fun with your hobby? That all seemed very ridiculous to Marc right now.

He sat what felt like an eternity in front of his notebook. He did write something down, but also erased many things again. His ideas sounded good for him at the beginning, but then he did something what many other writers would entitle as one of the worst mistakes you could do: He read over everything he wrote down again.

He often heard, that many writers are just writing and then let the readers tell them, what was good and what not. But for that, you needed many confidences in you and your writings, which Marc both didn’t has.

Marc shook his head, bevor another line became the victim of his eraser. ‘I can’t show Nathaniel something like this’, he thought, while he ran his fingers through his hair and held up his head with his arms.

His gaze went to his phone. Meanwhile ‘Smoke on the Water’ by Deep Purple was playing, a song he usually was able to work perfect to, why isn’t this working today?

He unlocked his phone to turn of the music. That was when he noticed, that he got another message. It was from Nathaniel again.

‘Just a quick reminder that you don’t have to work for an eternity. It’s important to find a good start, but not as important as your health, so don’t stay up to late!”

This message left a warm feeling in Marcs chest. For some reason, he was happy that the artist worries about him. It felt different to what he felt just a few days ago, where he only knew Nathaniel through his talent and just imagined what it would be like to talk to him.

When he saw on Nathaniels Contact ID, he saw that the artist was still online. Marc was a little amused, but it was enough amusement to make a screenshot and to circle the little word ‘online’ with a red circle.

‘Same goes for you :P’, he replied, sending the edited screenshot with his text.

‘Okay, you got me :P’, Nathaniel replied only a few seconds later and send another message right afterwards.

‘But I will go to bed now, I wish you a good night.’

‘Thanks, you to’, Marc replied, before Nathaniel went offline.

Marc wanted to do the same, but he saw he got a message from another person. The Contact ID was ‘Duolingo Bird.’

‘Go to sleep or I will haunt you!’, said the message. Marc had to grin a bit before he replied to his sister, who knew her Contact ID to well, so she could make such jokes.  
‘Have mercy, I will go now!’, he wrote to her, before he went offline and turned off his music. His gaze wandered back to the almost empty pages of his notebook. He sighed. Maybe he would have some more ideas tomorrow, before he is going to meet Nathaniel.

Many people weren’t believing at first, that Marc and Cecille were siblings, because they were the complete opposites from each other. An example was, that Cecille was always very extroverted and took her energy out of socializing, while Marc was really introverted and lost energy, when he was talking to people.

Another example were their moods in the morning. Cecille always was an early bird, often to other peoples distress, because she was already able to talk non stop in the early hours. Marc on the other hand was a sleepyhead, like they are described in a book. Even his seventeen alarms, he sets every night, couldn’t do much about this, even if they rang every two Minutes.

It was noticeable this morning again. Alarm number twelve was ringing is a brassy sound, but left the writer unimpressed. Five different pillows were spread on his bed, he grabbed the nearest he was able to get laid it on top of his head.

He wouldn’t have imagined, but he had a very good dream. He didn’t know what the dream was about, but he still knew that Nathaniel appeared in it. In any case, his alarm pulled him out of it and if it weren’t also his phone, he would absolutely smash it against the wall.

After some more seconds, alarm number twelve went silent and Marc loosened his grip around the pillow. It was still one and a half minutes, until alarm number thirteen will continue and Marc wanted to enjoy this time in peace.

That means, he would, if the door hadn't opened the moment the alarm went silent. „Good Morning ~“, his sister wished in a singing voice, but just received a mumbling as an answer. „Get up, little bro, a new day raised“, she tried again. „If it just raised, I have plenty of time until I have to start it“, Marc still mumbled in his pillow.

Cecille had to grin, she already knew this discussions in the morning to well and also a way she could end them. She stepped on the foot of his bed and grabbed for the corners of his blanket, which she pulled away with a quick move.

The cold air, which probably was in Marcs room the whole time, grazed now against the parts of his body, which his short pajama doesn't cover. The writer quivered and pulled his legs towards his upper body, to protect himself from the sudden coldness. After he tried this a few seconds, and had as good as no success by doing so, he loosened the grip around his legs again and threw a deadly glare towards his sister, who was still standing there with his blanket over her shoulder, looking triumphal.

“Come on, it's half past six and as far as I know you, you will need an eternity to get ready”, she said, before leaving the room with Marcs blanket. Marc wanted to grab for it, but Cecille was walking to fast for him. He now hang over the edge of his bed and was debating whether he really needed a graduation or not.

'If a higher power exists, they should send me a sign that I should get up now', Marc thought. In this moment, alarm number thirteen began to ring and Marc came to the conclusion, that the higher power didn't seem to like him.

Slowly, Marc got up and swung his legs over, so they were standing on the ground. He stayed like this for a few seconds, before he grabbed for his phone, to switch off alarm number thirteen and every other alarm that will follow.

He got up and scuffled towards his door. On his way, he passed the big mirror on his closed and looked at it for a short moment. His hair was standing to all sides and his face seemed so dry, like it hadn't been in touch with water for month.

He left his room and scuffled to the bathroom, where another mirror told him, how sleepy he looked. Marc opened the tap, to splash cold water in his face.

Mentally, he was a little more awake now, but his body still seemed asleep. But this will get better with the time, first it was time for his morning routine.

For that, he grabbed for his toothbrush and the toothpaste, which were both standing on the edge of the lavatory. He put some of the toothpaste on the brush and let a little water run over it, before the turned the tap off and began to brush his teeth.

After a short time, he washed out his mouth with a bit more water and looked at his teeth in the mirror. Pleased with the result, he put everything he used for it back to its usually place.

Now, it was time to do his hair, the part of his morning routine which he really hated, because his hair was really restive after getting up. He opened the drawer under the lavatory and put out a round brush. With this, it would be easier to comb his hair, then with a normal hairbrush. He took the first strains of his hair and began at the tips. He already was feeling the small dragging pain, when his hair untangled itself and bit his teeth, to bear with it.

When he was done with the tips, he slowly worked his way up to the scale and repeated that with the remaining strains of his hair. After some minutes, he was done and loosened the pressure on his now hurting jaw. He really had to think of something better to bear with the pain, or else he will need a a night guard someday.

To end the work on his hair, he took a hair tie out of the drawer and tied a few strains of his hair, which got pretty long in the last years, back, so they won't stay in his face.

He now was finished with his teeth and his hair. Now came a part, where he had to be very careful: Make up.

Marc was fascinated by Make up and what you could do with it for years already. He also watched many tutorials in the internet and tried some of them himself.

But he was to scared to wear an extraordinary Make up, when he went outside. He always imagined how other people would stare or even laugh at him if he would do that and this imaginations where a torture for him. But he didn't want to resign for it completely, because he had the feeling, that it gave him a little confidence in himself.

For that reason, he only used a little bit and watched out, that everything stays restrained.

Again, he looked inside the drawer and pulled out a bottle of foundation, colorless powder, an eyeliner, a mascara, a little sponge, a brush and a light lip gloss. This things all belonged to his sister, he used them because he hadn't enough money to always buy himself something new and he also didn't want to ask his sister for his own.

He put a drop of the foundation on his wrist, from where he took small amounts with the little sponge and spread it over his face.

Soon, his whole face was covered. For the next step, he grabbed for the colorless powder, which he used so his face wouldn't shine this much.

After he applied the powder, the last steps followed. He took the eyeliner and pulled back the skin under his eye. He had to be really concentrated when doing this, because he had the tendency to sting himself in the eyes with that.

After he applied the small lines under his eyes, he took the mascara, whipped a bit of the black mass off and carefully took a bit on his eyelashes. After that, he applied a bit lip gloss on his lips.

Marc looked at himself in the mirror. Everything was like always: Fresh but not to extraordinary.

Now it was time to dress up, for what he left the bathroom and went to his room again. He opened his closet and let his gaze wander over the different pieces of clothing inside. His eyes laid on a pair of dark blue hot-pants, he once bought out of an impulse. He never had the guts to wear them. Maybe he could today?

Marc shook his head just a few seconds after this thought. 'I can't do that in no case', he thought, 'That's just to flamboyant, people would stare at me!' So, together with a pair of underwear, he picked a dark blue Jeans, a white shirt and one of his favorites pieces, a red fake leather jacket.

He quickly changed and also put on his finger-less gloves and his choker, which he just threw somewhere in his room yesterday.

A last glance in the mirror told him, that Marc was ready for the day. He walked towards his bedside table, where his notebook and his phone were. He picked up both and put his notebook in his backpack, which stood on the ground beside the bed and unlocked his phone to look at the time.

The shock was driving past him, when he saw that it was already 07:40 am! He would need twenty minutes from his home to school, but only if he hurries.

He quickly swung his backpack on his back and ran toward the apartments door.

“I gotta go, Cecille! Love you, see you this evening!”, Marc called inside the apartment, before he quickly left it. His sister was going to call something out to him, but Marc didn't hear it anymore, since he was already climbing down the stairs.

After a hectic walk, Marc still had three minutes until classes will start and the Collegé Francois-Dupoint was already in sight. Even if he was already fighting with his breath, Marc speed up a little more.

But, as soon as he wanted to get up the stairs towards the entrance, he could hear a brassy honk, what didn't only make him jump, but also some of the other students around him.

He turned around to the direction where the honk came from and saw a light blue Chevrolet Matiz, which wasn't just one car. No, this 'runabout', as his sister called it affectionately, belonged to Cecille. 'What now?', Marc asked himself slightly annoyed.

As if she could read minds, Cecille let down her window. With a pair of sunglasses on her nose and a serious facial expression, she waved Marc towards her. Marc knew that it wouldn't do him any favor to simply ignore her and go inside, because she would just follow him inside, so he just did as she wanted and walked towards her. He could almost feel the stares of the people around him and wished for his Hoodie right now, so he could hide under the hood.

“At least take some money with you to get something in the cafeteria, if you haven't the time for breakfast at home”, she said and held a five euro note towards him, which Marc took a little grudgingly. “And you also forgot your keys, that was what I called after you”, she also said and reached his keys to him, “Because it's possible that I'm not at home, when you come back. I will drive to Pierre now, we will practice for the audition.”

“Ok”, Marc answered quietly, causing for Cecille to give him a little smile. “Alright, then have a good day, love you”, she said, before kicking down the gas pedal, which drove the car more and more away from her embarrassed brother.

He put his hands in his pockets and stared to the ground, so he hadn't to see in the other students faces and quickly walked inside the building.

Marc ran again when he saw that his classroom door was about to get closed. He really wanted to yell to the person, that they should wait, but the words just stuck in his throat.

He reached the door just in time and held his hand through the last gab, which the door was still open and squeezed his hand a bit by doing so. The girl, who wanted to close the door a few seconds ago, reconized it and opened it again, let Marc in and mumbled a quick “Sorry” to him.

Completely out of breath, he let himself fell on his place, opened his backpack and pulled everything he would need for the next few hours out.

“Gee, Marc”, a voice next to him said. It belonged to Quentin, the classmate who set next to him. They weren't really close to each other, but they got along well and occasionally talked. “You look tired, did you run?”, he asked.

“N-No, b-but I hurried”, Marc answered in his typical shy manner and still out of breath.

A few hours, and a headache causing math class, later, the bell were signalizing the end of classes. Marc packed his things and was already exited to meet up with Nathaniel, when realization hit him.

His notebook! He didn't have any new ideas until now!

'Oh this is bad, this is so, so bad!', Marc was becoming desperate, before he took out the notebook of his backpack and left the classroom, because Madame Mendeleiev wanted to close it.

He read everything again while walking through the halls and asserted in shock, that he didn't like anything he wrote anymore. This lines were okay yesterday, why did they sound so poorly today? Marc hadn't an answer to this question.

He was so concentrated on his notebook, he wasn't paying attention on his surroundings. Only when he bumped into something (or someone?) else and fell backwards, he came back into reality.

“Can't you watch your steps, you klutz?!”, a brassy and also girly voice shouted at him. Marc looked up and saw Chloé Bourgouis, the daughter of the major, looking very angry at him. He only knew Chloé from what others are telling about her and this was nothing good.

“I-I'm sorry”, Marc stuttered while he slowly got up and noticed, that he didn't held his notebook anymore.

Chloé began to nag something about her 'new outfit' and how he probably 'could have ruined it', but Marc wasn't paying any attention to it. His eyes went over the ground in panic.

He needed a few seconds before he recognized Sabrina, Chloés only friend, standing behind her. She held his notebook in her hands and looked at it fascinated. “What do you got there?”, Chloé asked her when she noticed, pulled the notebook out of Sabrinas hands and opened it, which leaded to even more panic in Marc. “G-Give it back”, he demanded and wanted to grab for the black book, but Chloé held it away from him.

“Ever heard from 'The finder keeps it'?”, she asked the rhetorical question and read the first line, while Marc still was trying to pull it out of her hands.

Suddenly she began to laugh. 'Why is she laughing? What's so funny about it?', Marc asked himself in his thoughts. “Well, if this isn't the most ridiculous thing i've ever read, then I don't know”, she said between the laughters. Marc was hit by the shock when he heard her say this. He already could feel that tears started to build up in his eyes. He knew that he couldn't count Chloés words as serious criticism, but hearing this still hurt.

“Would be new to me that you're reading anything at all!”, a comment towards Chloé was heard behind Marcs back. Her laughter was exchanged by an outraged facial expression as she looked at the person it came from.

Marc turned to see Nathaniel standing behind him, who threw an angry glare toward Chloé. “Give Marc his notebook back”, he demanded, “Now!”

If glances could kill, you could now arrange two funerals. Chloé starred back at Nathaniel, with the same anger in his eyes as him. After a few seconds , she sighed and threw the notebook towards Marc, who could catch it, just before it would hit the ground.

“Whatever”, Chloé said, “But two former super villans who are now fighting alongside Ladybug and Chat Noir is ridiculous anyway. Come on, Sabrina, let's go!”

This said, she turned on her heels and stride away from the boys. Sabrina looked to them apologetically one last time, before she ran after Chloé.

“T-Thank you”, Marc thanked the artist, while he entangled his notebook with his arms and didn't dare to look Nathaniel in the eyes, because he was still fighting with his tears, which he didn't want him to see. “You don't need to thank me for that”, the redhead answered him and laid a hand on the writers shoulder to comfort him a bit, “Just don't listen to Chloé, she has no clue what she's talking about.”

Nathaniel paused in his sentence, he seemed like he was thinking about what to say to distract Marc a bit. “Did I hear that right? You're considering a second former villain, who should join the team of heroes?”, he asked after all.

This question gave Marc the chills. He just wanted to abandon this idea, but now Nathaniel knew about it and wanted to now more. This was so embarrassing for him, his body froze and he could feel the heat coming up his face. However, he still managed to give Nathaniel a short nod.

“I think it's a good idea”, Nathaniel said smiling, which wondered Marc. “R-Really?”, he asked a little sceptical, making Nathaniel nod. “This way, Mighty Illustrator wouldn't be the only one to keep his power after being released from the Akuma, that would make the whole story a little more believable. About who did you think?”

Marc answered to his question, but so quiet that the artist didn't hear it. “I'm sorry, I couldn't understand you, could you repeat it?”, he asked because of that.

“R-R-Reverser”, Marc answered and looked away completely to hide his more and more reddened cheeks. His embarrassment was now on a level, on which he wished a whole under him to fall in.

“Yes, that's good”, Nathaniel said after overthinking it for a few seconds and laughed a bit, “Even if he really scared us, his powers are really cool and could be a good help against villains.”

Marc turned his head, this time he was watching at Nathaniel directly, who gave him a soft smile. “Come on, let's go to the art room and see how we can implement this idea”, he said as he gave Marc a little push, so they were moving forward.

Almost two hours later, both were sitting on the table, were Nathaniel was usually sitting alone and were sunk in their conversation. It was strange, but somehow Marc was very inspired in Nathaniels presence. Together, they had already two pages full of possible scenarios and Marc already had some ideas how to implement them in the story.

The rang of a phone distracted them. Nathaniel pulled it out of the pocket of his jacket and looked at the display, before rolling his eyes. “My mother”, he told Marc before accepting the call.

“Yes, Maman? What is it?”, he asked. On the other line, even a bit away from the phone, Marc could here a hectic female voice, which caused an annoyed facial expression on Nathaniels face. “Now calm down, how late is it?”, he asked another question and waited for the answer. As he got it, his eyes became big. “Ok, I'm sorry about this, I will come home now”, he said and started to pack his things, but paused when the woman was talking again. “What? You're waiting in front of the school?”, he asked, “Okay, then I will come out now.”

He hang up and turned to face Marc. “I totally forgot the time, synagogue will start in fifteen minutes, my parents are waiting outside and my mother will have a panic attack if we don't hurry”, he explained to Marc and packed the last of his things, what Marc also did.

“I-I'm really sorry”, Marc had a feeling like he needed to apologies. Nathaniel looked at him confused. “Why are you apologizing?”, he asked Marc, “You knew that I needed to go, but not when, so there is no reason for you to apologize”

Both boys swung her their backpacks on their backs, left the art room and walked next to eachother in the corridor.

“C-Can I a-ask you something?”, Marc suddenly spoke up. “Sure, what is it?”, Nathaniel answered. “I n-never thought y-you were r-religious”, he said, “B-But don't get that w-wrong, I-I think it's interesting, m-maybe you c-can tell me a b-bit about it?”

Marc was maybe just as red as Nathaniels hair, what the hell was he saying?

He wasn't interested in religion, but somehow he wanted to know so many things about Nathaniel as possible and this was the only question he had in his mind right now.

“Oh, I'm not religious at all”, Nathaniel answered his question. Now it was Marc, who had a questioning look on his face, making the artist chuckle a bit. “My mother is the only one in my family who takes the religion seriously, my dad and I are only going along with all the traditions to make her happy”, he explained.

“Oh, o-okay”, Marc said and also couldn't resist a grin on his face.

“I remember the day of my bar mitzwa really well”, Nathaniel went on, “The boys have to read out of the Thora that day and that on hebrew, which I can neither read nor speak. So, I learned my passage out of listening and probably read everything out wrong, because everyone was disbelievingly starring at me.”

Both had to laugh after this short story. “Sounds really funny”, it blurted out of Marc between the laughter. Nathaniel thought about this for a moment. “For my father and the rest of the people yes, for the rabbi and my mother not really”, he answered, “They looked like I just had summoned a demon.”

They had to laugh again. Marc couldn't remember, when he laughed like this the last time.

“There you are, hurry or we will be late!”, Nathaniels mother talked to her son, when he came out of school with Marc. “Hello to you too, Maman”, he greeted her, “I know you want to be on time, but don't panic, we still have ten minutes and we need only five with the car from here.”

After he tried to calm his mother down, he pointed towards Marc. “Anyways, this is Marc, I told you about him yesterday, do you remember?”, he asked her. Madam Kurtzberg looked over to the shy boy.

“H-Hello, M-Madam Kurtzberg”, Marc greeted her a little scared of the strict looking woman. But she calmed down a little bit, before she talked to Marc. “It's nice to meet you, Marc”, she said, “And I really want to talk with you a bit, but we're in a hurry, so maybe another time?”

Marc just nodded and Madam Kurtzberg directed her attention towards her son again, pulled something out of her purse and gave it to him. “Come on, put this on”, she demanded from him. Marc has already seen something like this, how was it called again?

“M-Maman!”, Nathaniel cried out with a little disgust, his head almost turned as red as his hair, “I still can put the kippa on, when we are there!”

“Then hurry up and get in the car, so we can go”, his mother sighed, before she opened the door of the car, let herself fall on the seat again and shut the door.

Nathaniel turned around to Marc, still slightly red in his face. “I-I'm sorry, that is... really e-embarrassing for me now”, he said and scratched the back of his head. Without another second to think about it, a smile appeared on Marcs face and he couldn't hesitate a giggle, letting Nathaniel blush even a little more.

“I-I'm sorry, I'm not... laughing at you”, he explained, “It's just... funny... to see you getting as shy as I am.” Nathaniel looked a little wondered about what Marc said, but soon cracked a smile also.

“But... you don't have t-to be embarrassed”, Marc tried to comfort him, “I'm experiencing this enough times with my sister.” This time, it was Marc making Nathaniel laugh a bit. “Maybe your sister is the president of the 'Embarrass middle school students club', but my mother is the founder”, Nathaniel joked.

“Hey, this isn't an competition”, Marc protested while still laughing, infecting Nathaniel with his laughter again.

“Hey”, Nathaniel said, after he calmed down, “If... you don't have something to do tomorrow... do you want to go to the Louvre with me? I'm always going there for inspiration... maybe it also works for you?”

Marc turned silent again, after he heard this. Spending time with Nathaniel on a weekend day? Somehow, he really liked this idea, but it also got him nervous. But why was that?

“Uhm...”, Marc said while thinking about what to say, “Sure... I-I really would like to come along.”

“Okay, then...”, Nathaniel wanted to say, but was interrupted by the honk of his parents car. Annoyed, Nathaniel turned his head around. “Alright, I'm coming!”, he yelled towards his parents, who were waiting in the car, and walked towards the door to the backseats, but turned back to Marc on last time. “I will text you the time we will meet, ok?”, he asked, receiving a smile as an answere.

Nathaniel smiled back, before he got into the car, which was driving away immediately.

Marc waved them, before he started walking his way home, wearing a bright smile on his face. Somehow, he felt good when he was with Nathaniel. He didn't know why, but it made him happy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey,  
> many thanks to all readers of this story.  
> I would really appreciate it, if you leave a comment, telling me what you liked, what not.  
> This way, you can help me approve :3
> 
> Greeting
> 
> Shiniyi


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